Topic: Investor

Shares of Apple rose Tuesday morning after Pacific Crest upgraded its rating on the stock to "outperform," citing high expectations for the company's next iPhone, which the firm expects to sport a 4.7-inch display and $299 starting price tag.

According to a series of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings on Wednesday, Apple awarded top executive leadership nearly 36,000 restricted stock units each, which at current prices would net over $19 million.

The announcement that Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer will retire later this year, making way for Luca Maestri to take over the position, was not surprising to investors on Wall Street, who generally responded with confidence on Tuesday.

Peter Oppenheimer, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Apple, will retire from the company at the end of September, after spending 18 years with the Mac maker, it was announced on Tuesday.

Apple's chief executive Tim Cook sat alone onstage as he presided over the company's annual shareholder meeting, fielding questions and detailing various aspects of his company's business. Among the topics he discussed were sales of the latest iPhone models, Apple's pace of acquisitions, and the growth of Apple TV.

Institutional ownership of large-cap stocks is currently at high levels, but there is one glaring exception to that trend: Apple, which is currently at a five-year low among hedge funds, banks, mutual funds, and other powerful types of financial institutions.

Shares of Apple stock slid Thursday morning after investment firm Barclays Capital lowered its rating on shares of the iPhone maker, saying it doesn't expect the stock to break out of its current trading range within the next year, and suggesting its performance could become comparable to that of rival Microsoft.

Listening to the Google-enraptured tech media's echo chamber of fears, uncertainties and doubts about the world's most profitable and successful company, you'd never realize that there's an incredible bounty of low hanging fruit waiting for Tim Cook's Apple to harvest, and little but mobile scorched earth left behind Google.

Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn on Monday dropped efforts push for Apple to spend the bulk of its considerable sum of cash on its own shares, citing recent stock repurchases by the company as "so close" to fulfilling his original goals.

Apple shares are trading up nearly $10 after CEO Tim Cook revealed the company's recent $14 billion buyback and hinted at an entry into new markets, though Wall Street's reaction was not good enough for activist investor Carl Icahn.

Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed on Thursday that the company has bought back some $14 billion worth of AAPL shares since an earnings call two weeks ago, saying the move is the biggest repurchase on record for such a short period.

Next Thursday, Apple will pay "shareholders of record" the company's quarterly dividend of $3.05 per share, but investors needed to own the company's stock by the market's close today in order to qualify.

With the share price of Apple dropping more than $40 in Tuesday morning trading following a disappointing earnings report, billionaire investor Carl Icahn announced he has bought another $500 million stake in the company.